CIREN GIVEN A CHASING AS YELTZ STROLL INTO THE NEXT ROUND OF THE LEAGUE CUP

Southern League Cup 28 Oct 2009

Halesowen Town 4

Cirencester Town 0

Brief match report, little analysis. Will wait to see the ref's report before I do a full report.

Hardly touching the ball in the opening 15 minutes as a nigh on full Yeltz team disdainfully passed the ball through, round and over them, Ciren conceded 2 goals and could have been five down at the break.

On 9 minutes Tom Bates collected and advanced. As the Ciren defence retreated in front of him he shot and Adam Clatworthy saw the ball dip over his head and nestle in the top corner of the net.

Three minutes later a simple through ball split the defence, with Lyndon Tomkins exposed and waving his hand for a non-existent offside, and Stefan Moore was clear to net easily.

Scurrying valiantly to contain a rampant Halesowen, Ciren had hardly a moment on the ball to compose themselves and consistently kicked their possession away.

Ciren had enough to contend with without also having to cope with what appeared, even to the partisan crowd, to be an embarrassingly homer ref. In a remarkable statistic, in the opinion of the referee, Halesowen committed no contact fouls in the first half.

On 32 minutes Lyndon Tomkins stepped up to clear a wayward pass, lost control just outside the centre circle and when Moore collected to set off downfield, Tomkins tripped him as he tried vainly to regain the ball.

Even the invariably deadly Stefan Moore does not inevitably have a clear goal scoring opportunity when he is still 35 yards from goal. The ref decided that he did have a clear goal scoring opportunity and red carded Tomkins

Within the next 10 minutes Ciren had collected two more cards, both yellows for events that appeared no different to those that had so far occurred all over the pitch. Deflated but defiant, Ciren held out and Clatworthy made three solid saves as their goal came under constant siege.

Though, in a fleeting moment on 42 minutes when Griffin held the ball and got steady support Ciren could have scored. Ryan Parker, off an astute Griffin return pass, jinked into the penalty area and forced Nick Bussey to a good save with his legs to keep the 2 goal margin for Halesowen.

Second half, remarkably in the light of the run around they had been receiving, Ciren bravely slowed the pace and tried to control and keep the ball. Ryan Parker had another clear chance on 52 minutes but slashed wide from 12 yards.

Ciren continued to hold their own though rarely keeping the ball sufficiently long to threaten a by now strolling Halesowen defence. The Yeltz were pinging the ball short, long and occasionally wrong as they treated the game as a training exercise, much to the annoyance of their increasingly vocal dug out.

Callum Miller, replacing Griffin on the hour, was making the so far unruffled Yeltz defence play hurried clearances and Halesowen were becoming careless and anxious. On 70 minutes Blenkinsop raced onto a diagonal pass, Clatworthy was out quickest to collect, and was clumped big time. Blenkinsop was a lucky lad just to be yellowed.

Ciren bookended their uneasy and ineffective performance by again conceding twice in the final 10 minutes. On 80 minutes a corner, cleared, was returned into the middle and from 3 yards an unmarked Stefan Moore duly netted a loose ball.

On 90 +4, Ciren faced another corner. Again, it was half cleared and this time, as Clatworthy rose to claim the return ball he was nudged in the back by Blenkinsop, lost balance and dropped the ball for Stefan Morley to score.

In reality, Ciren were never in this game enough to test Halesowen. They neither held the ball with enough composure, nor passed it well enough nor showed enough desire to show for passes.

When players run around all match asking for the ball but showing, by their positioning, that they do not really know where to go on the pitch then their team cannot play as a team. At crucial moments if a player hides or kicks the ball away, rather than be exposed to a possible error, the opposition finds it increasingly comfortable to bring the ball down and just rack up the pressure.  Put simply, Halesowen never had to deal with any pressure.

Yeltz: Nick Bussey, Jamie Swift, Aaron Griffiths, Stefan Morley, Jamie Hood, Jay Denny [Paul O'Brien 84], Simon Johnson [Tom Breward 57], Scott Rickards (c), Stefan Moore, David Blenkinsop Y70, Tom Bates [James Johnson 64] subs: Henry Eze, Michael Reji

Centurions: Adam Clatworthy, Adam Corcoran, Mark Pritchett, Neil Griffiths (c), Fred Ward Y38, Lyndon Tomkins R32, Jamie Reid [Chris Thompson 75], Tom Etheridge Y24, James Robbins, Scott Griffin Y36 [Callum Miller 57], Ryan Parker No other subs

Ref: Mr S Plane, Pershore. No comment.

Att: 195 By kick off there were 11 Centurions within the Hallowed Halls of The Grove. Fair play to them for making the effort.

MoM: did not take a poll but in my opinion, Fred Ward (not Ted, I was told, though he is an Edward!) did his rep a lot of good, offering for the ball constantly, controlling it and passing, and getting himself in to make successful tackles.